Morphine
by B00k Freak
Summary: Skye has broken her arm and is hooked up to a morphine drip. She ends up admitting something that May didn't expect.


**a.n. Hi guys, just posting an update since I unloaded this this morning. No, I did not mean to copy PanicMoon15's story, 'I'll always come to find you'. Crazy as it is, we just overlapped a bit with the 'drugged confession' bit. If you don't know her stuff you should definitely check it out.**

**Side note, if you want to ask me if I've copied someone elses work by accident you don't need to hide behind the anon button, I'm not going to bite.**

There was one thing that Melinda May hated more than anything else. It wasn't being called 'The Cavalry', it wasn't people thinking that she was an unfeeling robot. It wasn't even the feeling when Phil had thrown hateful words in her face, though that was a close second.

What she really hated was when the people she cared about got hurt and there was nothing she could do.

She had felt that when Coulson had died. When Skye had been shot. Again when they had arrived at the Playground to find Fitz in a coma, no one knowing whether or not he would wake. The need to do something but the inability to achieve anything would have her climbing the walls in the best case scenario.

Worst case... well, Phil had pulled her off of Ian Quinn.

This wasn't too bad really. Compared to the other times.

Skye had been out on a mission with Hartley and Idaho, while May had been on a different mission with Hunter.

She didn't like Hunter.

But what she really didn't like was returning to find out that Skye had been kicked down some stairs and broken her arm.

It wasn't a bad break, the medical team had assured. She had been put under a general anaesthetic to set it, and was hooked up to a morphine drip, but otherwise she was okay.

Both missions had been a success, thankfully. Coulson was away on another of his recruitment drives, but had been briefed on Skye's condition.

May sat by her student's bed and for the dozenth time tried to work out exactly when she had gotten so attached to this girl.

It was late, just about everyone on the base was asleep except her, Skye, and anyone on the night shift. Any noise felt too loud, and the cold somehow felt sharper, despite the air always being filtered. May knew that she should probably sleep, but it wasn't going to happen right now. Not when Skye was like this.

Seeing her in a gurney again, with another heart rate monitor hooked up to her and a bit of a bruise forming on her cheek all reminded May too much of when Skye had been shot. She looked so young and fragile.

The beeping of the heart rate monitor didn't change as Skye's eyes flickered open drowsily. When she had blinked the sleep from her eyes and she saw her SO sitting by her bed, she smiled warmly. "Hi." Skye mumbled, not moving very much, looking quite comfortable.

The ghost of a smile touched May's lips too. "Hi." She returned. "How do you feel?"

"Hmmmm..." Skye groaned slightly. "Sleepy and..." She waved her free hand. "Blah." She pouted a little. "I fell."

"Yeah." It seemed that Skye shared her reaction to pain medication. It wasn't an unusual response, and usually this wasn't something the patient would remember anyway. Phil thought that dopey, drugged Melinda was adorable, though she had made him regret saying so. She would never admit that she could see his point. "Down some stairs."

Skye seemed to notice her bound arm for the first time. "Huh."

"It hurt?"

The young agent grinned, still not quite there. "Naah, can't feel a thing, see?" She tried to start hitting her arm against the bed, but May caught her. Skye pouted again but found no apology in May's eyes. "Wanna draw on it?" She asked, "You're s'posed to draw on them."

"Later." May said, trying to be gentle, releasing her arm. "You should sleep now."

"Five more minutes mom." Skye pleaded jokingly, and May smiled. "I thought you were, you know, for a while. Before..." She said sleepily. "Made sense." She yawned. "Right age, I knew that there was something to do with SHIELD, and you were keeping secrets." Skye smiled slightly. "Even look kinda similar."

Melinda stared at her student, gobsmacked. That was not something she had ever expected to hear come from Skye's mouth, and she knew with absolute certainty that she wouldn't have if the girl wasn't on morphine. "Skye..."

"S'okay you're not." She murmured. "Either way... closest I've had."

Skye was starting to drift off, which May was grateful for, and she was pretty sure that Skye would be too if she knew what she was saying.

A tight hand latched on to hers and suddenly the hacker looked desperate. "Don't leave me."

Phil said that she was cute when she was drugged. Skye was just breaking her heart. "I won't."

"Everyone does."

"I won't." May gently brushed Skye's hair away from her eyes. "I promise." There was an intensity to Skye's gaze which was not usually there. Melinda held it, matched it, and watched the fear fade.

Skye did not release her hand as she drifted off to sleep, mumbling something incoherent when May wasn't sure whether or not she was still awake. Melinda couldn't make out what the younger agent had said, but if she had to put money on it she would say it sounded like 'I love you'.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

Skye woke up hours later, after her morphine dose had been cut down. May was seated next to her bed, typing on a handheld computer. "Hey." Skye greeted, blinking and sitting up.

May looked up from her tablet. "Hi."

Skye swallowed the stale taste in her mouth and rubbed her eyes clear with one hand. "What happened?"

There was something unreadable on May's face. "You were pushed down some stairs."

"The mission?"

"Completed." May assured, "Hartley got the guy, Idaho got you."

"Cool." Skye said, though secretly dismayed at becoming such a burden. "Your mission?"

May nodded. "Also a success. Coulson's been briefed on your condition, you're out of combat for a while."

Skye grimaced, looking at her bound left arm. "Could be worse, I guess." At least it wasn't her right arm. "How long?"

"At least three weeks."

A deep sigh. "No sparring then." Despite the end result always being Skye getting her ass kicked, she really enjoyed combat training.

"Not unless you want me to prove that I can take you down with one hand behind my back." May said, and Skye laughed.

"Wouldn't really count if I had one arm out of commission too." Skye grinned, and May shrugged. "What are you doing?"

"Report on my mission." May said, tapping at the tablet. "Hunter's not going to."

"Yeah, duh." It felt like May was keeping something from her. Had something else happened? Had she had a bad reaction to some medicine and May needed to keep an eye on her? "There's a perfectly good computer in Coulson's office you know." Skye knew from experience that May didn't like touch-screens.

Her SO looked up at her with that indiscernible expression on her face and said softly, "I didn't want to leave you."

Skye was oddly touched. "Thanks." She mumbled.

_Now _she recognised the look on May's face. It was one of curiosity, of expectation. Like she was waiting for Skye to say or do something, but what?

"Oh God." It all came back to her in a rush, and suddenly the best solution seemed to be pulling the blankets up over her head.

May sounded amused. "Skye."

"Go away." Christ, she never meant to _tell_ May any of that. It wasn't even that she'd really believed it, it was just that Skye had been looking at every possible person trying to find her parents, and she really looked up to May and _God, _she was never talking to her again.

"You asked me to stay." The smile was obvious in her voice.

"I don't care." Skye whimpered, blushing bright red and clutching the heavy blanket over her head. Was embarrassed even the right word here? There was one that Simmons used sometimes... Mortified. Yeah. That fit better.

"_Skye."_ May actually poked her blanketed form, but Skye shied away.

She was pathetic, bruised and sore and broken armed, and she had told May, one of the only women she had ever really idolised, that she had thought she was her mother. God, she was so _sad. _

"There's a bottle of water here, don't make me use it." May warned, but Skye still didn't move. She smiled fondly and rolled her eyes. Skye was such a kid sometimes. "What happens on morphine stays on morphine." She said, trying a different tactic. "Trust me, I'm making that rule more for me than you."

Silence.

"I'm not going to laugh at you."

"You never laugh."

May smirked. "Then you know I won't."

More silence.

"I am curious though, who'd you think the father was?" A baiting question.

Brown eyes gave her a disbelieving look as they peered out from the blanket. "Seriously? Coulson's the daddest single guy ever. Plus you two have the constant eye sex going on."

Melinda tried to keep the triumph off her face, though she was proud that she had finally tempted Skye from her hiding place. She could honestly see the resemblance, and she knew that she wasn't the first to either. "I won't tell anyone." She said warmly.

Skye smiled shyly, still blushing, and started to climb out from the blankets. "What happens on morphine stays there?"

May nodded. "I've done much worse than you."

"Bullshit." Skye started to sit up again, letting herself be drawn in.

She nodded again. "One time I passed out from blood loss. The last thing I saw was Coulson going up against three assailants." Skye paled. "Backup arrived pretty quickly after I collapsed, he only got some bruising." Now she smiled sheepishly, remembering. "But when I came to, all I could remember was him being in danger." Skye actually spotted a bit of a blush touching May's cheeks. "So I- uh, I latched onto him and wouldn't let go."

Skye laughed incredulously, but stopped a moment later, mumbling a, "Sorry." May had just promised not to laugh at her, she should at least return the favour. "I just can't really imagine you getting all clingy."

Melinda shook her head to indicate that it was okay. "I'm surprised that Coulson didn't tell you himself." She said, "It was his favourite story for a while."

The hacker grinned. "How long was it before you let him go?"

May wasn't quite meeting her student's eyes. "Almost half an hour."

Skye snorted. Now that she thought about it, she actually could see May getting overly attached when on pain meds. What they seemed to do to Skye was lower her inhibitions, making her admit things she wouldn't usually say. She knew that May loved them all very deeply. Given that, it made sense that she would get a little clingy. "You're determined, that's for sure."

"You knew that already."

"Yeah." Skye smiled gently. "Thanks for staying."

"Any time." May said softly. "Phil stayed. I fell asleep, but he stayed anyway." Because just because it wasn't something they would usually do, didn't mean it wasn't true.

"That's sweet."

May smirked and put her feet up on the bed. "Of course he rubbed my nose in it for a while afterwards."

Skye giggled. "That's what friends are for, I guess."

"Speaking of which-"

"Don't start."

"Mother's day is in a few weeks..."

"May-"

"I could use some more of that darjeeling tea."

"Shut up."

"Or a new yoga mat."

"Go to hell."

May was grinning bigger than Skye had ever seen and she tried very hard to scowl at her. "Who taught you that kind of language?"

"I hate you."

"That's not what you said before."

Skye glared but said nothing, flopping back down into the bed and facing away from her. "Good night." She said firmly, and Melinda stifled a laugh.

"Good morning." She corrected.

"Whatever."

May paused, letting the silence take over for a second. "Do you need a bedtime story?"

"Go _away!"_


End file.
